There exists a number of approaches for the synthesis of lactams. For example, the classical approach for the synthesis of lactams involves cyclization of the amine onto an ester as exemplified in the Roche case in this patent or N-alkylation followed by acylation onto an acylhalide (Raghavan et al. J Org. Chem. 2006 Mar. 3; 71(5): 2151), Rhodium catalyzed intramolecular C—H insertion of alpha-diazo-alpha-(phenylsulfonyl)acetamides derived from alpha-amino acids (Yoon et al., J. Org. Chem., 2002, 67 (18) 6582), [2+2] cycloaddition reactions for the synthesis of β-lactams (Bari S. S. et al, Top Heterocycl Chem (2010) 22: 49; Kidwai M. et al. Current Medicinal Chemistry 6(3) 1999, 195). Palladium catalyzed lactam formation (Honda T. et al. Org. Lett., 2001, 3(4) 631. Most of these approaches are based on an acylation approach wherein the amine needs to be nucleophilic enough for the transformation to take effect.